I never thought I’d be a stay-at-home wife or mom. I’m a journalist. It’s all I knew. And never ever did I think I’d be the sort of wife who would send her husband to work with home-baked goods. In fact my career-driven inner 25-year-old is vomiting at the mere mention of such an eventuality. She would be particularly appalled to see I’m enjoying myself (when not sleep deprived.)
The fact of the matter is for the first EIGHT years of marriage, I would not put my husband’s laundry away. I would wash, dry, and fold it. But I would not put it away.That’s where I drew the line. Until two weeks ago. I’m so type-A that I can no longer stand seeing his t-shirts in their neatly folded pile sitting out for even a few hours. So I put them away. My housewife conversion is complete.
The organic granola was an accident. I made it for my husband (and my little ones). He took it to work. News was breaking. He didn’t eat it. His colleagues did. So I sent more. Inner 25-year-old, let’s have a glass of wine and go to bed. Those kids are gonna be up early.
And for the rest of you, especially Liz Palka, Tanya Rivera and Lauren Melvin (who have repeatedly asked for this recipe,) here it is!
Yield 20 granola bars:
Ingredients
- 1 Cup of raisins
- 1 1/2 cups wheat flour
- 3 cups of oats (I prefer organic rolled oats)
- 2/3 cup pecan pieces
- 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 2 cups of trail mix (you can buy it or make your own)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup of applesauce
- 1 cup of almond butter
- 1/2 cup of Maine maple syrup
- 1 egg replacer (or 1 egg)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Mix Ingredients together (I use my kitchen aid mixer)
- Your ingredients should become sticky enough that you could form a ball with them. The ball may not stay together if you launched it across the room, but it would leave your hand together. To make it sticker, add more almond butter or egg replacer or maple syrup. To make it cagier, add more flour.
- Oil your pyrex dish so granola bars come out cleanly
- Put in glass pyrex dish and mash down
- Place in oven until edges are brown, typically about 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven
- Let cool for 10 minutes
- Cut into squares
- Leave to cool completely
This is a super kid friendly activity. You can change the ingredients as much as you like (adding sunflower seeds, pistachio, or other nuts and berries). While my recipe features far less sugar than others, these granola bars taste very sweet. My hubs likes to break it up in a bowl with milk for breakfast.
This is a great recipe to customize to fit your family or the ingredients in your store. Enjoy!
3-buck Chuck, here we come!
Anna